Summit County April Fools' tradition celebrates and satirizes ski culture

Harrison Fast, 26, of Boulder, poses for a photoTuesday, April 1, wearing two GoPro cameras on his helmet, facing each other, for Gaper Day at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. “It seems to me that in past years they were kinda cool with it, and this year I heard a lot of negativity toward it,” he said. “They were really like, ‘It’s not in the spirit of the resort.’ To me it seems like this is absolutely the spirit of the resort. I mean this is the spirit of skiing.”

A woman dressed up for Gaper Daysteps into an ambulance at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Tuesday, April 1. A-Basin chief operating officer Alan Henceroth said he wasn’t sure what happened but didn’t think the injury was related to the event.

Roommates Luke Babcock, 33, a ski and bike technician, and Bill Kresge, 21, a plumbing and heating technician, both of Breckenridge, pose for a photo Tuesday, April 1, during Gaper Day festivities at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Keith Fountain, 29, dressed as Winnie the Pooh, right, encounters Tigger, or Mateo Gomez, 27, of Denver. The two Denverites didn’t know each other before they met Tuesday, April 1, at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area during Gaper Day festivities.

Mikie Mattern, 26, of Breckenridge, dances Tuesday during Gaper Day festivities at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. The event likely started decades ago as a way to show off old ski gear on April Fools Day. Since then, it has evolved to an all-day party where some dress in clothing making fun of “gapers,” or clueless tourists. Area ski resorts blacked out some employee passes for the day, citing safety and other concerns, which caused tension between the companies and their workers.

Lauren Keeler, 29, a second-grade teacher in Denver, poses for a photo Tuesday, April 1, with friend Kelly Keys, 25, a Denver nurse. Keeler said she’s been coming to Gaper Day in Summit County for the last 10 years. This year she wore a wig and a Kim Kardashian booty and joked that the event probably started “sometime in the ‘80s when the first Texans came here on Spring Break.”

Skye, a 6-month-old pit bull lab hangs out Tuesday, April 1, at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area with owner Beth Sloan, 22, who grew up in Breckenridge. “Gaper Day is always fun,” she said. “I have to drive, so I’m not [drinking]. I’ll be DD. I’m just having one. Just kidding, this is water.”

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Beers and grills littered the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Tuesday as a few hundred people gathered for a local April Fools’ Day tradition known as “Gaper Day.”

Some skied a few runs. Some came just for the party.

Locals and Front Rangers wore old neon jumpsuits, cut-off jeans, flower leis. Dogs ran around as people danced to the Talking Heads and ’80s pop.

Buzz Lightyear, Gumby and Winnie the Pooh made appearances. One man wore a giant pink furry mustache around his neck, a couple guys skied with umbrellas and at least three people wore American flags as capes.

Gaper Day pokes fun at “gapers,” a derogatory term for tourists.

Vail Resorts and Copper Mountain Resort employees were not allowed to use their complimentary passes at A-Basin, according to A-Basin spokeswoman Adrienne Saia Isaac, and the same went for A-Basin employees at Vail Resorts and Copper.

“We’re all about the retro costumes and people coming out and having a good time,” she said, but the resort wanted to rein in the unofficial event because it has gotten out of hand before in terms of alcohol and safety.

One man who worked in a restaurant at Keystone Resort that has already closed for the season said he would be upset if there was a foot of fresh snow on the ground.

“We are blacked out as Vail employees,” said Tom Newsted, 36. “I don’t understand why, but whatever the reason, I am not a fan of it.”

“People need to drink responsibly, they need to ski in a safe and responsible manner and it’s never OK to make fun of people,” he said. “There’s nothing cool or fun about that, that’s why we’re always so geared up for this event.”

He added that in the past the resort has had issues with harassment.

“We haven’t had any today. It’s been very good,” he said, “and that’s the way we want to keep it.”

Spokeswoman Tracy LeClair said the Summit County Sheriff’s Office saw a few alcohol-related offenses but no more than usual during spring break.

“This event doesn’t have the same draw that it used to in years past,” she added. “It used to be a big party, but I really think that especially during spring break time, it’s no different than any other day.”

One Breckenridge resident said Gaper Day at A-Basin has changed since he started coming nine years ago.

People used to bring couches, said Mikie Mattern, 26, but this year about half as many people as usual showed up.

One Colorado native skiing with family said she experienced a different kind of Gaper Day when she lived in Summit County 30 years ago.

“In the 1980s when we first started doing it,” said Vallorie Griffitt, who used to work at Copper, “it was more about bringing out your old skis and your old boots and your old clothes and just celebrating where skiing came from.”

She said most people partying Tuesday were nothing to worry about.

“It’s just those few people that get a little bit too out of hand that can change a person’s whole day,” said Griffitt, 47, who now lives in Longmont. “When you’re wasted out there and you’re skiing, people get hurt.”